Chrysler, Taco Bell Win Among Super Bowl Commercials

Oprah Winfrey
and a wrinkly senior named Bernie Goldblatt helped Chrysler and Taco Bell win the advertising battle at Super Bowl XLVII Sunday night amid a power outage at the New Orleans Superdome that interrupted the game.

Chrysler Group LLC., which enlisted Ms. Winfrey to do the voice-over in a touching Jeep spot that paid tribute to the troops, was one of the big game's most liked commercials, according to advertising executives and consumers surveyed by The Wall Street Journal.

"I got goose bumps; I was on the verge of crying," said Tom Geary, a 60-year-old mechanical contractor from Aston, Pa. The car maker's Ram spot about farmers that featured the voice of Paul Harvey was also applauded. "Bloody Brilliant," said Cindy Gallop, a former ad executive.

Some Super Bowl commercials scored while others were not suitable for a family audience. Horizon Media Senior Vice President Brad Adgate joins the News Hub with his take on the best ads from the big game. Photo: Taco Bell.

Chrysler's spots had a lot to live up to as the car maker's last two big game spots, featuring rapper Eminem in 2011 and actor Clint Eastwood in 2012, generated enormous buzz.

Taco Bell's spot, which was created by
Interpublic Group
of Cos.'s Deutsch, showed senior citizens, including the one named Mr. Goldblatt, having a wild night out. It "had all the right ingredients," said
Ewan Cameron,
chief executive of
WPP
's
Berlin Cameron United.

Josh Hultgren, a 36-year-old from Savage, Minn., said it was "funny to see older people having fun."

The ad parade and game were interrupted for more than 30 minutes because of a partial blackout at the Superdome.
CBS
continued with its live coverage. CBS said that all commercial commitments during the broadcast are being honored. Consumers moaned about the delay on social-networking sites such as Twitter. And one enterprising big game advertiser, Oreo, tweeted: "Power Out? No Problem," and attached a photo of its cookie with a headline that read, "You Can Still Dunk In The Dark."

Twitter said it took four minutes after the lights went out for the first Twitter advertiser to bid on "power outage" as a search term.

CBS said that it lost numerous cameras and some audio. It used backup power and at no time did the network leave the air.

Advertising executives said that overall this year's crop of big-game ads was mediocre. They suggested that some marketers spent too much time focusing on pregame social-media stunts tied to their spots and not enough crafting powerful game-night commercials.

Danica Patrick helps two people become the perfect match, in this GoDaddy Super Bowl Ad.

For some, stimulating online hype and Web views before the kickoff is a good way to get more mileage out of pricey Super Bowl ad time, whose cost has jumped about 80% over the past decade. This year, 30 seconds during the game, which was broadcast on CBS Corp.'s CBS network, sold for about $3.8 million.

Related Video

Musician will.i.am checks in with WSJ's Monika Vosough at Macworld to talk about technology and his favorite gadget. And while he's at it, he performs a freestyle rap about the Super Bowl 2013. (Photo: Getty Images)

Chrysler kept its ad a secret, unlike many other Super Bowl advertisers that released their spots online—in whole or in part—days before the big game to generate early chatter. These included
Yum Brands
Inc.
's Taco Bell, with the Goldblatt character tweeting in the days leading up to the game, ensuring he was known before the broadcast.

For companies, the stakes are enormous because the Super Bowl is one of the few chances for marketers to grab a huge live audience as TV ratings for live prime-time TV continue to erode. But the huge viewership also means any misstep is amplified—particularly as social media let unhappy consumers share their gripes.

RIM's BlackBerry used its spot in the big game to help launch a new operating system aimed at reversing the company's eroding share of the smartphone market. But the spot missed the mark, according to ad executives. Instead of focusing on phone features, the spot showed what the device doesn't do—including make its owner disappear or stop an oncoming truck—an attempt to poke fun at other ads in the category that rely heavily on product demonstrations. The company said Friday that other ads rolling out in coming weeks will focus more on product features.

ENLARGE

Budweiser's Clydesdale
Anheuser-Busch InBev

"If you are going to throw a Hail Mary, you have to get it in the end zone," said
Jay Williams,
executive creative director at
Publicis
Kaplan Thaler.

"I thought this was a miss by BlackBerry, said John Felton, a 29-year-old student at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. "Consumers want to know how the phone is different and superior to Android or the iPhone," he added.

Other ads that scored during the showdown between the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens included entries from
Procter & Gamble
Co.
's Tide and GoDaddy Group Inc. Those brands outperformed veteran Super Bowl advertisers such as
Anheuser-Busch InBev
NV,
Coca-Cola
Co.
, and
PepsiCo
Inc.,
known for their attention-getting big game pitches.

This year, "Tide washed away the ad competition," said
Mark Wnek,
creative director of the United Nations global education program. A character in the ad wore a jersey displaying a stain that resembled former 49er Joe Montana and was crafted by Publicis Groupe SA's Saatchi & Saatchi.

The GoDaddy.com spot, which showed a supermodel locking lips with a geek named Walter, was polarizing but generated plenty of laughs. "Shocking but in a funny way," said Jack O'Brien, a 42-year-old commercial real-estate broker in Chicago.

The spot was created by Deutsch, the agency that was also responsible for Taco Bell's promotion.

Anheuser-Busch, long one of the big game's major advertisers, had an uneven performance with commercials for its two new brands, Beck's Sapphire and Budweiser Black Crown. Both fell flat among the ad executives polled. The Black Crown spot featured partying hipsters while the Beck's ad showed a singing fish. "I don't think Nemo can sell beer," said
Allen Adamson
,
a managing director at WPP PLC's Landor.

Still, the brewer's touchy-feely Clydesdale commercial showing a horse being reunited with its trainer was a crowd pleaser. "Over 100 million people are holding back tears right now," said
Dean Crutchfield,
a branding expert.

The Clydesdales made their big game debut in 1986 and have appeared in 23 Super Bowl ads. "It's a Super Bowl tradition," said
Alfonso Marian,
chief creative officer of WPP's OgilvyOne.

Asking the public for help on ads produced mixed results.
Ford Motor
Co.
's Lincoln brand started a Twitter campaign asking people to tweet their most memorable road-trip stories. It then had late-night talk-show host
Jimmy Fallon
select five of the tweets to create its spot—which was panned by the ad executives the Journal polled.

There was "lots of sloppy storytelling because the ads are trying to do too many things," said Mr. Benjamin from Leo Burnett. Added Mr. Adamson: "A bit of online buzz before the game will get crushed by an ad that wins in the living room."

Ford wasn't the only marketer asking consumers to help craft its big-game commercials. Among those that produced standout ads was PepsiCo's Doritos, a veteran in consumer-generated spots. The ad, created entirely by amateurs, featured a Doritos-loving goat who becomes obsessed with the snacks.

Unlike past years, this Super Bowl's soda war between Coke and Pepsi lacked pop, ad executives said. A PepsiCo spot for Pepsi Next, a mid-calorie version of the company's flagship cola, featured a young man throwing a party while his parents are away, a theme that ad executives said has been done too much. "They didn't live up to the legacy," said
Mike Towell,
a creative director at Publicis Kaplan Thaler.

Among the winners was a spot for
Mondelez International
Inc.
's Oreo, which showed a fight breaking out in a library. It's an "epic" spot, said
Matt MacDonald,
co-chief creative officer at WPP's JWT NY. Wieden & Kennedy crafted the ad for Oreo. "Great use of the whispering to draw attention," said Jim Poon, a 27-year old student at the Kellogg School.

Among the car ads that stood out in the crowded automotive category were
Daimler
AG
's Mercedes-Benz ad and a spot from
Volkswagen
AG
that focused on a Minnesotan office worker speaking with a Jamaican accent.

While some media pundits suggested earlier in the week that the Volkswagen ad was racist, many ad experts gave it high marks. "Makes you feel happy, great spot," said Mr. Williams at Publicis Kaplan.

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.